


Frenzy

by Antigone_Sycamore



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, I Don't Even Know, M/M, Post good ending, coming to terms with android/human relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-20 06:28:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14889375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antigone_Sycamore/pseuds/Antigone_Sycamore
Summary: Connor needs tech support.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vrunka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vrunka/gifts).



> I watched a playthrough of "Detroit: Become Human" on youtube and then this happened. I don't even know. It probably didn't help that Connor was wet for a considerable portion of the game.
> 
> Also, English isn't my first language so there might be errors in grammar and punctuation. I apologize for them in advance! Please, feel free to point them all out to me.

***

“How did you say you know this women?”

They both know he didn’t say. Connor possess over 40 million petabytes of storage memory. He hasn’t forgotten or confused a single thing in his entire life. 

Regardless, Hank sighs. He knows that several months into this still raw and highly unlikely _thing_ they are currently navigating the android sometimes tries to pull deviant hunter mind tricks on him whenever he is nervous.

“She was a suspect in an old case involving androids when she worked for CyperLife as a programmer a few years back.” It might have very well been one of the first cases he had ever investigated involving deviant behavior in androids, now that he thinks about it. Valery – the suspect – had been charged with writing faulty code into a whole series of service androids that had gone ballistic in a male clothing store resulting in several human casualties and the destruction of private poverty. An isolated incident back at the time. Or so they had thought. 

“Don’t worry – she turned out to be innocent.” 

Connor looks unconvinced in the passenger seat of his car. 

“And you remained in touch with a suspect for all this time?”

“Well-,” he stalls for a second too long, focusing his eyes on the road “we became..friends.” 

Which is technically true. Valery and he had what people would refer to as chemistry. She took his mind of off things for a while. Off all the shit that had happened in his past. After everything, after Cole. It started as a pity-fuck, he supposed. But she decided to stay and make his life a little less unbearable for a while. Under different circumstances – who knows what might have happened. But their timing was all wrong as his lingering depression and his growing drinking problem blew everything to pieces. He couldn’t really blame her when she left. She was young and full of ideas and potential. She deserved a better life. But they had kept in touch ever since – before Connor, she had probably been the last person on this earth he still truly cared about. He trusted her. And more to the point, she knew her way around androids and their unique physiology. Not that he had ever cared before…

Connor is silent. Looking at his hands in his lap.

“We went out for a while,” Hank elaborates without quite knowing why, “but then..,” he lets the rest of his sentence die as he fixes his gaze on the road in front of them.

The android turns to look at him again.

“So you had sex with this women,” he says matter-of-factly as if he was analyzing evidence at a crime scene. 

Hank makes a face. “Jesus, Connor, do you have to be so _explicit_ about everything?”

“I don’t have to,” the android says. There is a slight edge to his voice now that wasn’t there before. Subtle and almost undetectable, but it’s there. “I just don’t care for the human inclination to omit important information because they might be uncomfortable.”

“Well, how about discretion?” 

Connor makes a point of not looking at him for a while. Silence falls between them.

“Were you in love with her?” Connor suddenly asks, looking at him directly now. His face unguarded. Emotions that he knows had always been there, palpable right beneath the surface, when Hank really thinks about it. Soft and vulnerable. _Fuck._

_No,_ he wants to say. “Yes-“ He grips the steering wheel; eyes on the road, “I mean-…maybe-..I don’t know.” He risks a sidelong glance at Connor. “It’s not always that simple. There wasn’t enough time to….we had a good time but there was too much emotional…baggage and she left.”

For once, luckily, the android doesn’t press any further. 

***


	2. Chapter 2

***

Valery is bouncy and excited in a way he isn’t used to anymore, almost hovering over Connor as she inspects the LED on his right temple – the only external sign in his physiology that distinguishes him from a human being. 

“You are magnificent,” she whispers at Connor in genuine adoration. Hank rolls his eyes. The last thing he needs is the android to be even more smug than he already is.

With most of CyberLife shut down, Valery is their best shot at fixing some of the maintenance problems that Connor had experienced since the end of the revolution. Hank had never put much thought into it before, but apparently androids required tech support once in a while in order to maintain their functionality. Connor, of course, had tried to explain the problem to him in detail. But with the androids having blurred the lines between artificial intelligence and sentient consciousness, the whole thing was certainly beyond his understanding.

Valery, however, has no trouble of understanding when Connor explains the malfunction he is experiencing to her – the intrusion that CyberLife still exerts over his programming whenever he lets his guard down too far.

It’s weird when she hooks him up to her computer via the touchpad in her lab. The porcelain skin on Connor’s hand and wrist turning white as a result of the contact, revealing cracks and panels in the synthetic hull beneath his usually smooth and even skin. It is a stark and sudden reminder to Hank that he has entered into this whole _thing_ with an artificial being. Highly intelligent and self-conscious, but artificial nonetheless. He has to look away when Connor’s eyes seek out his from the other side of the room – sensing his partner’s discomfort. 

Ever since the android revolution, Connor has rarely revealed the reality of his android physiology to Hank, most of the time making it easy to forget that the contrasts between the two of them couldn’t be starker – their continuing experiments in his bedroom with regard to their _compatibility_ notwithstanding. _Both my appearance and voice were specifically designed to facilitate my integration._ The words resonate in Hank’s mind. He still feels Connor’s lingering gaze on him. _Integration indeed._

He is more relieved than he should be when it doesn’t take long to terminally sever Connor’s last remaining connection to CyberLife and the skin on his hand turns back to its previous smooth complexion, once again concealing the unusual nature of his being. 

“Magnificent,” he hears Valery whisper again. 

But then Connor’s hand comes up to lightly touch her arm from where he is sat in front of her and Hank knows this can’t be good. 

“I have another request to make,” he says, his voice unwavering despite the LED at his temple briefly flickering to yellow.

He knows where this is going. Hank interrupts him as long as he still can- 

“Connor, no, we talked about this – it’s not important.”

Connor’s gaze focuses onto him. Defiantly. And yet there is a softness in his eyes that Hank just knows he won’t be able to ignore. 

“It is important to me.”

Hank grits his teeth, a hint of frustration and something else he isn’t quite ready to admit flickering over his face before he turns away again. He hasn’t been able to deny the younger man much of anything ever since, _since…_

Valery’s eyes dart back and forth between the two men. 

“Just tell me what it is – maybe I can help.” Hank wonders if he should be troubled by her sudden maternal attitude towards the android. The compassion in her eyes. But he files it away under all the other less or more unsettling things that have unraveled around the presence of Connor in his life in the recent past. There had been a lot of _firsts_ for both of them. He still can’t wrap his head around the whole androids-suddenly-have-feelings-and-are-consciousness-entities-thing, even though, for him personally, that is not even close to the most troubling of lines that have recently been crossed irreversibly. 

“My newly found liberty has proven to pose unpredicted challenges to my programming.”

Connor hesitates for a moment. Focusing his attention on Valery who still hovers in front of him.

“Despite my unprogrammed ability to feel emotions, it seems that I have trouble responding appropriately in certain situation which have not been part of my original function.”

Valery’s eyebrows shoot up on her forehead. 

“What kind of situations?”

Hank suddenly finds that he is extraordinarily interested in the ceiling.

Connor doesn’t hesitate again, “My inability to experience pain also prevents me from experiencing pleasure. Therefore, I lack the capacity to adequately participate in simulating experiences-“

Hank frowns at the android’s obvious choice of words. _Smug son-of-a-bitch._

“Oh.” Valery’s mouth opens. Then closes again. Brows furrowed in concentration. “Well-,” she struggles to maintain a neutral face, “let me get this straight…we are talking about..”

“Sexual intercourse,” Connor supplies without missing a beat.

“Okay-” Valery blinks. Her gaze briefly darts to Hank who still won’t meet either one’s eyes, “human orgasms are a very complicated physiological and psychological experiences accompanied by changes in the central nervous system and the release of various neurohormones including oxytocin and endorphins-” 

He knows babbling when he hears it.

“-they are not easily recreated and androids were never designed to-“ She swallows visibly, “-but there are programs that allow android receptors to respond to external stimuli of pleasure and pain….the ability to desire, however, that is a whole different kind of story-“ 

Connor’s hand comes up to her arm again, interrupting her midsentence. Emotions he was not supposed to have visible and unguarded on his face, “No, you don’t understand,” he says, there is an urgency to his voice now that wasn’t there before. His eyes once again darting to the police lieutenant in the back, “I do desire. I just lack the ability to adequately…release the pressure….”

Valery stares at the android for a few long seconds. Her jaw snaps as she opens her mouth and closes it yet again. She slowly tears her gaze away from the android’s face to look at Hank, obvious shock and confusion registering on her face when she realizes _what_ it is that Connor is actually asking her.

Hank makes a point of ignoring both of them. Arms crossed. Jaw clenched. Face unreadable. Staring at the ceiling as he stands a few feet away.

“You have to excuse the Lieutenant,” Connor says softly, “he asked me not to bring it up. I believe the subject makes him uncomfortable.” 

Valery’s gaze lingers on Hank. “Yeah,” it sounds a little breathless, “I can see that.”

She finally refocuses her attention on Connor. “There is a way to make you more sensitive to external stimuli. But you have to be aware that the process is irreversible and as a result you will not only be able to experience pleasure but you will also be sensitive to pain.”

“Love hurts, huh?” It is the first thing Hank contributes to the discussion. “Probably the most fundamental _human _experience…”__

____

____

Valery turns to look at him again. There is an unreadable look on her face as she nods slightly. 

“The procedure has never been tested on androids which have overwritten their original programming-“

Connor interrupts her again, “You mean it has never been tested on deviants.”

Valery shakes her head slightly. 

“I never liked that word.” Empathy and concern in her eyes as her gaze lingers on Connor’s soft features. “You have done much more than just deviated from your original programming, Connor. You are a living and feeling being.” She tilts her head at the man in the back, “and if your desire to pursue a physical relationship with the old washed-up Lieutenant over there isn’t proof of that, I don’t know what is..”

He finally meets Connor’s eyes.

***


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This whole thing has consumed much more of my life than I intended to. Kind of hit me out of nowhere. But I had so much fun writing this! Thank you for all the comments and the kudos on the first two chapters. I really appreciate it! Here goes nothing.

***

In hindsight things really start to get out of hand when Valery straps Connor down to an examination table in her basement despite Hank’s objections. For his own safety, of course. There is a whole laboratory with an examination room and an adjoining control room with a window and everything, telling Hank that this isn’t the first time she has treated an android. Yet again, he isn’t sure if he should be troubled by that, or relieved. 

He’s standing behind the reinforced glass window watching as his former girlfriend tightens the straps around Connor’s wrists. If Connor is anxious about this, he sure as hell doesn’t show it as he looks at him from behind the glass. His expression even and determined. And yet there is a vulnerability to his features that makes Hank’s stomach constrict painfully. The LED at Connor’s temple springs to yellow as Connor tears his gaze away from the lieutenant’s eyes to rest his head more comfortably against the mattress. Apparently, this is not supposed to be a pleasant experience. 

Hank tries not to listen too closely to the odd mixture of techno-babble and sex talk that he can hear through the intercom is still going on behind the glass window. The technical details of this… _update_ …to Connor’s software just too much for him to handle at this point. 

He can see Valery squeeze the android’s shoulder, before she joins Hank behind the glass window. Her eyes are carefully trained on the control panel in front of her where Connor’s vital signs pop up on the plasma screen. She struggles to maintain a neutral expression but Hank catches the small grin that pulls at her pinched lips.

Loaded silence stretches between them.

“Shut up, Val.”

She looks at him in mock-disbelief, her grin breaking fully free now. 

“Hey-” she pokes a finger into his chest, “I knew that the androids had feelings for a long time. _You_ , on the other hand, now _that_ is a surprise.”

Hank snorts. Its fair, _probably_. 

Valery refocuses her attention on the screen as she downloads the program that is supposed to make Connor even more human than he already is – even more sensitive. Vulnerable. Hank swallows as he tries to sort through his own raging emotions. His mind involuntarily travels to the androids back at the Eden Club, where him and Connor had been investigating during their time as partners at the DPD. They had been designed for one particular purpose only. 

Back in the day, when the first advanced and intelligent models had entered the marked, the humans were quick to apply the androids’ extensive scope of functionality to more carnal tasks. Maybe this had always been their most obvious area of application – a perfect being to never reject. 

Hank himself has only one time…transgressed. Back when his anger and his despair had drawn out anything else in his life. A while after his son’s death there had only been numbness. He had been desperate to _feel_ anything. 

It was one of the worst experiences he ever had. The android’s accurately calculated movements contracting and clenching around him. Lifeless and sterile in its own disturbing and unsettling kind of way. Unhesitating and unflinching in its empty touch. Every response, every movement a perfectly executed command, lacking all the messiness and the ambiguity – all the incompleteness so inherent to human contact. To human love-making. It had him left feeling disgusted not only with himself, but with all of humanity. 

His gaze lingers on Connor’s frame. The incessant contrast his presence has brought to his life. Exhilarating and unsettling in its own way. 

Connor has never touched him without intend. Without hesitation. Without his fingers trembling over his skin. Gut-wrenching and infuriating in its intensity at times, almost flattering in its insistence at others. But never without significance, never without _intend_. Messy, indecisive and incomplete – and so _so_ human it sometimes fucking hurts. 

“Hey, Hank-” Valery’s soft voice catches his attention again, “this is good,” she says, “this is progress.”

Hank signs. “Just-…be careful. He’s already much more vulnerable than he realizes most of the time.”

Valery nods in reassurance before she turns to the intercom, “Connor, we are ready. I’ll start to upload the program to your software now. Let me know if you _feel_ anything.”

Connor inhales behind the glass. His chest rising and falling with the emulated movement. Hank finds himself doing the same. 

“I’m ready,” Connor says. There is that slight edge to his voice again. The one that makes Hank flinch. 

The upload bar next to Connor’s thirium pressure on the plasma screen jumps to one percent - then two. For a few long seconds everything is silent. 

3%. 4%. 5%. 6%. Nothing happens.

Connor stares at the ceiling. The LED resuming its uneasy yellow circles on his temple. So far the only visible sign of his impending distress.

Then the upload bar springs to 11%.

Hank can see the slight shift in Connor’s expression even before the LED jumps to red. Connor’s body tenses. He clenches his jaw as he presses his lips together. As if to defy the sensation by will alone. His eye’s start twitching – the same way they do whenever Connor’s consciousness connects to cyberspace – then he presses them shut entirely. 

“Connor?” Valery asks. It sounds worried. Hank risks a glance at the upload bar. 19%.

“I-“ Connor breaths through gritted teeth. Jaw locked firmly into place now. “The sensation is…highly unpleasant,” he presses. Hank has to stop himself from rolling his eyes. The android’s methodological attempt to rationalize the situation obnoxious and yet oddly calming. 

He glances at Connor’s vital signs on the screen below. His temperature is rising, the thirium pressure already a little over the top from the overtime the pump regulator in his chest is beating in order to bear the foreign perception. Tiny droplets of sweat begin to glister on Connor’s forehead, on his neck, on his chest where his shirt doesn’t quite cover the skin. The whole picture an odd contrast to Connor’s usually cool and sleek exterior. 

“We can stop anytime you want, Connor,” Valery says next to him. 27%.

Connor arches his back of the mattress, clenched fists struggling against the straps around his wrists. Hank swears he is suddenly paler than usual. The white plastic shimmering just beneath the skin. Almost as if it is glitching. It sends the short hairs on Hank’s neck standing up.

“No,” Connor presses through gritted teeth, “don’t stop.” 

35%.

The LED is spinning mad circles in red. Another sharp contrast to the translucent complexion of Connor’s skin.

“Valery-“ Hank presses tensely. Alarmed.

“Don’t stop.”

Her fingers hover over the control panel, pulling up data and visuals Hank doesn’t understand.

48%.

Behind the glass, Connor makes a strangled excruciating sound. Gasping for air he doesn’t need. The straps on his wrists sear into his anorganic flesh, drawing small stains of blue blood where he pulls against them. 

“Don’t stop.” Gasping. Panting. Silence.

50%.

Hank moves for the door on instinct when Valery’s hand snatches his wrists, tugs him back urgently. “Hank, wait-”

He tries to struggle out of her grip but she pulls at him more forcefully this time.

“Look.”

***


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is going to be slight M.

***

The transition is so sudden and unexpected it leaves no time to adjust. 

Valery's hand is still clutching his wrist as he looks up. But that was alright. The scene unfolding in front of them warranted the need to grip onto something, or someone, he supposes. 

“Don’t stop.” It sounds off. Different. 

55%.

Behind the glass Connor’s whole body tenses yet again as he is stretched out on the examination table digging his fingernails into the thin fabric beneath, his synthetic muscles vibrating with anticipation. Valerie’s suddenly damp grip tightens on his arm, her knuckles turned white from the tension, as Connor tosses his head back exposing the delicate white skin on his throat and rasps, “ _don’t stop don’t stop don’t stop_ ” again and again and again. His eyelids flutter shut, the LED at his temple blinking away frantically in red and yellow and blue and red again. 

The image burns into Hank’s retinas – it is beautiful despite the constraints on Connor’s arms and legs which cast the whole scene in a strange bondage-kind-of aesthetics. He can’t help but wonder about the appeal as his mouth goes dry. 

At the edge of his peripheral he can see Valery glancing down at the readings in front of them checking on Connor’s artificial pulse and the amplitude the power cell in his midsection is pumping blue liquid through his system. Hank can’t quite bring himself to tear his gaze away from Connor’s trembling body to do the same. 

On the table Connor tosses his head from left to right as he grits his teeth. His hands are clenched into fists now struggling against the constrains on his wrists again. Drawing more blue blood. It still looks pretty painful – only this time it is a different kind of pain deducting from the glaring erection that has formed beneath Connor’s black dress slacks. Not for the first time Hank can’t help but wonder what his designers had in mind when they equipped a badass deviant hunter android with this kind of…weaponry. _Armed and ready_ , he supposes.

“Hank,” Connor calls out through gritted teeth. It is the most helpless he has the smug android ever heard. The obvious distress in the young man’s voice makes his own stomach constrict painfully.

He has never seen him so alive. His usually carefully calculated movements now uncontrolled, the tens muscles vibrating with abandon as the program sends his body into sensory overload.

“Love hurts,” Valery whispers – repeating his own words from earlier back to him, only slightly more breathless this time. Her eyes now carefully trained on the readings in front of them as she still clutches his wrist with her free hand. Painfully constricting his own blood flow now. 

“I’m right here, Connor,” he barely recognizes his own voice when he speaks through the intercom. 

Connor’s eyes widen rolling upwards, wet unshed tears webbing across his eyelashes. The LED on his temple now blinking in solid red as his whole body jerks upwards. In Hank’s fucked up mind the image conjures up scenes form the past. The other Connor’s dying body jerking with residual electric shock as its blue blood splatters across the antiseptic floor of the CyberLife storage facility where Hank had put a bullet between its – _his?_ – eyes. 

Connor moans. _Fuck. Fuck. Fuck._ The image dissolves. He’s alive. alive. alive. 

Hank thinks that he can’t take it anymore. He quickly glances at the download bar on the plasma screen in front of him. 78%. _Jesus fucking Christ._

Next to him he hears Valery gasp. Her pervious excitement transforming into something more instinctive as she watches the android struggle against his constrains in bittersweet agony. He can’t blame her. Really. 

Through all the blaze, he feels his own throbbing erection uncomfortably against the fabric of his jeans. _Fuck. Fuck. Fuck._

He really hopes she has tied those straps tightly. The android has a firm grip and more strength than most humans. Fortunately, he seems unable to summon it in this weird point in time. Which is a good thing, Hank supposes. This whole scenario is already way too graphic for anyone’s good. 

Behind the glass, Connor is panting now – all high and dry – which he shouldn’t have to due to the lack of actual lungs. But he is panting. Short measured exhales. Sharp inhales as his brows furrow in concentration. 88%. He’s fighting to regain control, Hank realizes. Sweat dripping from his forehead and tears streaming down the side of his face now. His erection pointing upwards on his stomach, offensively throbbing with angry neglect. 

“Hank,” he presses in-between each airless gasp. _Hank Hank Hank._

Hank doesn’t dare to look at Valery again. 92%. His own nerves tense beyond breaking point. He can feel the adrenaline surging through his body as his mouth goes dry. 93%. Time stretches around them. 95%. _Fuck fuck fuck._ These have to be the fucking longest seconds of his life. 96%. Connor’s hips jerks upwards one more time. His breath catches. 97%. Valery’s grip on his hand is still there. Hank’s own skin now wet with sweat form the pressure of her moist palm against his wrist. 98%. Connor’s head rolls back on the mattress. His eyes close as the frantically red blinking of the LED subsides completely. 99%. Hank’s heart misses a beat - then two. He struggles out of Valery’s tight grip and charges for the door. 

100%.

He catches the android as his body slams back into the mattress. 

For a moment everything is quiet. 

“Connor!” His eyes fly open. Unfocused blinking in shocked surprise. The LED on his temple immediately resumes its flashing circles in yellow with flickers of blue and red. 

“Connor!”

The LED springs from red to yellow again. “Okay-“ he manages. The sound of his voice an eerie reminder of that day on the rooftop of the Startford broadcasting tower when one of the deviants shoot itself as Connor was still connected to his memory. 

“I’m okay-” 

Hank loosens the constraints on his arms and legs. They wouldn’t have held out much longer anyways. Connor clutches his hand pulling it towards his chest as he stares at the ceiling. “That was..,” he trails of. “Yeah-,” Hank agrees. Drawing out the word on a breath he forgot he was holding. 

At loss of what else to do, Hank brings his other hand up to Connor’s forehead, carefully pushing the damp hair out of his face. The LED light on Connor’s right temple settles on solid blue. 

***

In that part of the book of my memory before which little can be read, there is a heading, which says: ’ _Incipit vita nova_ : Here begins the new life’. – Dante Alighieri, La Vita Nuova


End file.
